The Department of Homeland Security, the military, as well as local fire and police departments have been looking for technology to allow their wireless communication systems to interoperate and more effectively cooperate in response to emergency situations. Particularly at the local municipal level, wireless communication systems currently in use rely mainly on voice grade radios transmitting in the VHF and UHF bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. While some digital voice-grade radios have become available, a large majority of voice-grade radios in use still rely on legacy analog communications.
A need exists in the art for a means for users of standard VHF and UHF analog voice-grade radios to communicate both voice and data using those radios. In particular, there is a need for the ability for addressable communications to and from such voice-grade radios